Many refuse collection trucks are in use today of which a large percentage are front loading trucks which generally have a pair of forks attached to lift arms which raise a refuse container from the ground in front of the truck, over the truck cab, to a tipped position over the load opening of the refuse collection body. The load opening of a front loading refuse truck is located at the top of the collection body such that commodity in the refuse container will fall from the container into the load opening.
Currently, most front loading refuse trucks do not automatically operate to maintain an upright orientation of the lifted container as it is lifted on the lift arms. Instead the lift arms rotate about pivots on the refuse body and the lifted container moves from upright at ground level to substantially rotated by ninety degrees at the dump position above the load opening of the truck. Unless the operator intervenes to adjust the angle of the pickup forks on the lift arms, the container continuously rotates as it is moved from ground position to the dump position. As the lifted container rotates toward having its top become vertical, the opportunity increases for refuse commodity to prematurely fall from the container before it is positioned above the load opening.
Modern front loading trucks include hydraulic cylinders on the lift arms which can orient the forks of the arms and the operator then has manual control of the orientation of the lifted container by adjusting the extension of the rods on the hydraulic cylinders. The truck operator must activate a control to retract these cylinders when the container is at the dump position so that the container will tip sufficiently to empty into the load opening.
Some developments have led to leveling apparatus which operates through electronic means to maintain the lifted container in a generally upright orientation before it is located over the load opening. However, typically, leveling the lifted container requires the truck operator to manually control the cylinders on the lift arms by operation of extra levers or other controls.
An inexpensive modification is needed to retrofit existing front end loading refuse trucks to allow for automatic container leveling without operator intervention until the container is ready to be emptied.